Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys!
My girlfriend and I found this little guy hopping across the street in the neverending rain we've been getting in western Connecticut. He is quite small, was very friendly and inquisitive, and seemed to be trying to get to higher ground. What kind of toad (or perhaps frog) is he? We found him at 9:00pm.
Thanks so much!
Jeff and Kelly!

Sure looks like a dwarf American toad to us. We've had one for a pet since it came to us when a second grade teacher sent the livestock home at the end of the year after raising mail order tadpoles. The scientific name is b.a. charlesmithi.

Thanks! Do you think it might just be a juvenille or is it definitely a dwarf? Reason being, I saw another similar one hopping in front of him and that one was much larger.
Jeff

It could be a male... the females are quite a bit larger in most cases. He may have been trying to catch up to his girlfriend LOL

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Heather

Chilean Christmas Toad
Lemon Toad
Bufo varigatus

"Dwarf American Toad" is a separate species than "American Toad" although they look very similar. The American Toad is much bigger as an adult. When our toad was just out of the water (a "toadlet" it was REALLY small. Smaller than your little fingernail....so small, a mosquito was too large for it to eat. We fed the toad things like tiny insects swept off wood surfaces and aphids. Full grown, it can easily sit on a half dollar with no overhang. I'm not sure what the range of the Dwarf American Toad is...you might want to check that out to see if it is something you would find in your region just to be sure. I'm no expert on 'fibs...it might be the case that you found a juvenile American Toad, but don't know for sure how the size of a juvenile American Toad compares to a full-grown Dwarf American Toad. Maybe someone with more familiarity of these two toads will comment on this question.

and most of which are that size, I have found larger ones too, but I'd assume that that size is about normal so its probably a dwarf.

It's a B. americanus. It is NOT the dwarf! The dwarf is not a different species, but a subspecies of the american toad. Most importantly the dwarf does not occur in CT(range is IL south to TX). I'm in CT also. In western CT we pretty much get B. americanus. Eastern CT gets fowlers & spadefoots. This is simply a small american.